It took Daniel Devine 15 years and one simple question to realize the motivation behind his art.
�How important are reflections to you?� asked Jacob Grossberg, Devine�s art professor at Bard College in Duchess County, New York.
�At that instant, I realized they were very important to me,� recalled Daniel Devine, 63, now a fine arts professor at Hofstra University.
With this newfound realization, Devine began to use reflection to help find a hidden meaning in everyday objects. �If we look at the information we�re given in the world in a different and possibly a reversed way, we may find what�s behind the information - rather than what�s presented to us,� explained Devine.
Devine took his ideas about reflection and ran with them. He took a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit and reversed it, turning the entire car inside out. He installed a battery to keep the clock running at the correct time, so the car would exist in the present. Devine says he had hopes that the Inside Out Car �would make someone think of what is private, and what is public - and what the meanings of these terms mean to us.�
Devine�s artwork is currently being displayed at Pierogi 2000, 177 North 9th Street in Brooklyn. His sculpture, Secrets of Las Meninas, located behind Calkins Hall, is part of the Hofstra Museum Sculpture Garden. And last Spring, some of Devine�s work was chosen as part of the Hofstra Arts Festival and put on display at the Emily Lowe Gallery.
The native of Connecticut became aware of his artistic ability in the second grade. �I always drew,� says Devine. Yet for years after high school, Devine worked as a sandal maker in San Francisco, and constructed large outdoor light shows. He also spent time working as a motorcycle mechanic. He also pursued his art, but, he said, did not attend college until he was 44 years old, receiving his master�s degree after only three years at Bard.
�Most people who become artists don�t know what an artist is,� says Devine, �Until they�ve been one awhile.�
In Devine�s eyes, art is based on intellect just like any other subject in academia. �Art is something more than finding a unique object or image,� said Devine. �It�s primarily an intellectual endeavor.�
He has been an art teacher in many places, including New York University in Manhattan, and a visiting artist at the University of Sweden. Devine has his own methods of teaching to allow students to explore their own artistic ability and sense of design before assigning a specific topic.
�It distresses students at first,� said Devine. �They find out that I�m there to accept what they do.� He feels this allows his students to �draw from within them.�
Hofstra senior Jacqueline Koril attended Devine�s Three Dimensional Design course in Spring 2003. �He thinks that students should do what they want to do,� she said, �and that everyone has their own unique talent, even if people don�t like their art work.�
Devine believes all people in one way or another have a sense of design. �Every artist is an individual, and they have their own perspective on the world. What separates them is their own experience and their own personal view of the world based on that.�
Devine values the outlook artists have on the world. �What I gravitate towards is artists and their way of looking at life,� he says, smiling. �I have a great appreciation for artists in general.�
He appreciates the direction art has taken him in his life. �I continue to make art, I continue to support myself, and I continue to wake up in the morning with an interest in life and what�s ahead of me.�
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